So, by way of continuing my introduction, I am a graduate student in a conservation biology Ph.D. program. Basically I'm a "tree-hugging, bunny-loving hippie" (to quote my little brother) interested in how environmental stressors affect fish body symmetry. I completed my master of science degree many years ago in the same interest and actually managed to get it published. My current research is with an adorable little fish called the Japanese medaka Oryzias latipes:
Told you they were cute. *grin*
One advantage to using these guys for my research is that because they are so small (approx. 1.5-2.0 cm as adults), I can have more of them per tank than my original study organism. A big disadvantage is because they are so small, I have to have more specialized equipment than one normally needs to do this type of research.
Well, their size and my disability mean I have to have more specialized equipment than one normally needs to do this type of research.
My MND -- intermediate spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) -- blesses me (she said sarcastically) with weak muscles that progressively grow weaker with time. As such, to take measurements on the fish, I can no longer easily manipulate the fish under a microscope and measure them with a ruler or calipers like I did 12-13 years ago. I need a good quality stereo microscope with a good quality camera with as much resolution as possible to capture digital images of my fish.
Check.
I also need a computer with good graphics and monitor.
Working on it.
"Wait!" you, a Faithful Reader, cry out. "Hold on a second. If your dexterity ain't what it used to be, then how do you maintain your broodstock? How do you feed them, clean their tanks, remove the floaters? How do you conduct your experiments and raise the babies? How do you even get back into the TOP SECRET rooms where they all live?"
That, Faithful Reader, is what my minions are for.
You see, I have two amazing undergraduates who act as my lab assistants. They are part of our department's Undergraduate Mentoring in Environmental Biology program funded by the National Science Foundation. They are paid through the department's NSF grant to work in a lab and gain research experience. It's a great program, and I am lucky to have two of its best students. I literally could not do my research without Arianne and Carla.
And that, my Faithful Reader, is how fortunate I am to be a biologist with a severe disability who can still conduct quality research without having to do modeling. *shivers* If my only choice as a biologist were modeling, I think I'd rather just sit back and become a bank teller like my grandmother suggested 16 years ago. Thinking about the level of mathematics required to do modeling gives me a headache.
1 comment:
"Wait!" you, a Faithful Reader, cry out. "Hold on a second. If your dexterity ain't what it used to be, then how do you maintain your broodstock?"
Yeah, I'm that question would have eventually showed up under, how the hell do you handle going to conferences and being snowed until 20 lbs of papers, or juggling the actual research papers themselves, or hauling around the several hundred books it took to do my research.
I'm sure "how do you keep fish alive" would have eventually come up but with the blanked of paper, paperwork, books and presentations which come with Ph.D. stuff, I was more on that than, like feeding a tank. However, I am very impressed that you have minons. Good practice for world domination. So I am glad you have them too, and when they ask, "Why are all these blueprints of banks needed for studying Japanese fish, the, "It will all be clear in time" has been a line used by global dominators for quite a while.
Seriously, thanks you for highlighting the funding AND the ways in which hard core science research can be done, even with severe physical limitiations.
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